Sam Brodbeck

The UK doesn't save enough. It's a plain and simple truth that the savings and investment industry has known for decades. Politicians have finally cottoned on – and they are worried. Report after dull report has concluded there will be a generation who retires into penury, or cannot afford to retire at all, because they have not squirreled enough away. The big question is, what can we do now to dodge the diet of ready meals and food stamps awaiting us when the 2030s roll around? We already have the automatic enrolment programme, introduced in 2012, which forces millions of employers to offer their staff pensions. But even once it is fully rolled out, less than 8 per cent of your salary will go into a pension.

When you were a young child, did you ever throw away the packed lunch provided by your parents, then go around scavenging tastier alternatives from fellow pupils? No? Just me then. I can assure you this happens up and down the country every lunchtime and - believe it or not – tells us something about the benefits system. It also provides a warning about the pension freedom reforms. Let me explain. Last year radical government reforms gave over-55s unfettered access to their pension pots. Where previously the vast majority of people bought an annuity paying a fixed income for life, now savers are staying invested in retirement or taking cash lump sums.

Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs is unlikely to be your favourite government department. But you have to pity the poor bean counters. It can't be fun spending all day sending brown envelopes across the country in the hope of collecting enough tax to save the Chancellor's blushes on Budget day. But now the tax office has gone too far in its pursuit of our money. Last week it emerged that grieving families had been sent demands to pay tax on inherited pensions. You might think that sounds entirely reasonable - after all, we've all heard Benjamin Franklin's famous adage that death and taxes are the only certain things in life. However, in this case the rule does not apply. Just over a year ago George Osborne made sweeping changes to the pensions system.